(2) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to food products manufactured from a turkey tenderloin, and more particularly from a turkey tenderloin which has had its tendon extracted from its surrounding muscle tissue.
(2) Description of Related Art
The inherent existence of unsightly, tough, unpalatable, and difficult to remove tendons in various muscles and/or cuts of meat and poultry has created expensive and difficult problems for decades. The inability to remove tendons from particular cuts of meat and poultry in a satisfactory and economical manner has relegated many of the most tender, succulent, and desirable cuts thereof to the less desirable and least demanded of meat or poultry products. A primary example of the above problems is the tenderloin of a turkey. Although it includes a tender and desirable portion of white breast meat, a large undesirable tendon extends directly through a major portion of the tenderloin.
There are presently only two methods being employed to remove tendons to improve the desirability of the meat products. The first method is to manually cut or trim the tendon from the meat with a knife. This method is tedious and time consuming, and therefore uneconomical. Also, when the tendon is removed in this manner, the meat is most generally separated into distinct pieces or portions, no longer maintaining its original integrity as a single portion, muscle or cut of meat.
The second presently used method has not been applied to the tenderloin of turkey but is used with tendons in limb of a fowl. It is simply to grab the tendon next to the bone with a pair of pliers and tear the tendon away. U.S. Pat. No. 584,381 to Lowndes discloses a pair of pliers adapted for this purpose. This method, if applied to a turkey tenderloin may be faster, more economical, and easier than the trimming method described above; however, it also leaves the cut of meat substantially torn into distinct pieces or portions. Since neither of the above methods for removing a tendon from a cut of meat leaves the cut intact as a single portion, the appearance, desirability and usefulness of the meat is greatly compromised. Also, because of the meat industry's inability to remove such tendons in a satisfactory manner, certain cuts of meat such as turkey tenderloins must be sold at a reduced price, or must be reduced to smaller portions by removing the tendon(s). These must then be sold in the smaller and irregularly shaped portions, thus limiting the usefulness thereof and reducing the market price.
Because of the greater desirability of intact, tendinous cuts of meat, there exists a long felt need for a single portion of turkey tendon with the cut of meat itself being substantially unaffected.